Table 4 Incident wrist pain and possible tendonitis by physical exposures.
| Physical exposure factor | Pain | Possible tendinitis | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | n (%) | ORadj. (95% CI) | n | n (%) | ORadj. (95%CI) | |
| Number of repetitions/min | ||||||
| Continuous variable, repetitive group | 3014 | 284 (9.4) | 1.6 (1.2 to 2.3) | 3247 | 33 (1.0) | 1.4 (0.5 to 4.0)† |
| Grouped exposure | ||||||
| Reference | 1526 | 87 (5.7) | 1 | 1596 | 11 (0.7) | 1 |
| Low (⩽10.8) | 1453 | 108 (7.4) | 1.2 (0.8 to 1.7) | 1543 | 13 (0.8) | 0.6 (0.2 to 1.7) |
| High (>10.8) | 1561 | 176 (11.3) | 1.7 (1.1 to 2.7) | 1704 | 20 (1.2) | 1.1 (0.2 to 4.2) |
| Test: p = 0.02* | Test: p = 0.35* | |||||
| Force (scale 1–5) | ||||||
| Continuous variable, repetitive group | 3014 | 284 (9.4) | 1.4 (1.1 to 1.8) | 3247 | 33 (1.0) | 2.9 (1.3 to 6.8)† |
| Grouped exposure | ||||||
| Reference | 1526 | 87 (5.7) | 1 | 1596 | 11 (0.7) | 1 |
| Low (⩽1) | 1243 | 107 (8.6) | 1.2 (0.8 to 1.7) | 1309 | 17 (1.3) | 0.6 (0.2 to 1.8) |
| High (>1) | 1771 | 177 (10.0) | 1.3 (0.9 to 1.9) | 1938 | 16 (0.8) | 0.5 (0.1 to 1.8) |
| Test: p = 0.38* | Test: p = 0.82* | |||||
| Position (wrist out of neutral), % of time | ||||||
| Continuous variable, repetitive group | 3014 | 284 (9.4) | 1.2 (1.0 to 1.4) | 3247 | 33 (1.0) | 1.0 (0.6 to 1.6)† |
| Grouped variable | ||||||
| Reference | 1526 | 87 (5.7) | 1 | 1596 | 11 (0.7) | 1 |
| Low (<19.8) | 1404 | 116 (8.3) | 1.2 (0.8 to 1.7) | 1477 | 13 (0.9) | 0.6 (0.2 to 1.7) |
| High (>19.8) | 1610 | 168 (10.4) | 1.2 (0.8 to 1.8) | 1770 | 20 (1.1) | 0.5 (0.1 to 1.6) |
| Test: p = 0.83* | Test: p = 0.70* | |||||
*p value of no difference between estimates in the groups “low” and “high”.
All analyses were adjusted for the following fixed set of potential confounders: age, age2, examining centre, gender private physical activity, hand straining sport, hand injury, hand surgery, rheumatoid arthritis, connective tissue disease, shoulder width/height, BMI, pressure pain threshold, psychosocial covariates (demand, control, strain, social support), type A behaviour, loneliness, stress.
†No cases of incident possible tendonitis among individuals with former hand surgery. This variable was left out in the analyses.
In the analyses of the effect of the continuous variables, odds ratio (OR) expresses the risk for hand pain or possible tendonitis with an increase of one third of the range of the variable.
Significant findings are in bold.